Tennessee's Pat Summitt Hands Over Whistle At Press Conference

Legendary Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt spoke of starting her job 38 years ago at Tennessee for little money, but she obviously treasured every moment. She talked about growing up on a farm, talked about always challenging herself to step up her game.

Summitt, who was diagnosed about a year ago with early onset dimentia, stepped down Wednesday as Tennessee coach and made it official at a Thursday afternoon news conference.

She will remain as “head coach emeritus” and said she will give her all to that role, just as she did as coach. She also is committed to working for Alzheimer’s fundraising and research.

She called on Tennessee fans to support the new coach, her longtime associate Holly Warlick. She then called up Warlick, who was sitting at the head table Thursday, and gave her a whistle, saying “It’s time to turn over the whistle." Warlick said, "I know this works, I have heard it a lot of times.”

Summitt won 1,098 games in 38 seasons, and eight national titles. Tennessee and UConn, the top two programs in women’s basketball for nearly 20 years, have played 22 times, UConn winning 13. The Huskies also won all four national championship games in which they met, 1995, 2000, 2003, 2004. The 1995 season put UConn on the national map.

There also was a moving video tribute to Summitt, starting with the early days.

Athletic director Dave Hart led off the news conference and praised Summitt for everything she has done at Tennessee. Summitt’s son Tyler also was at the head table. After about 28 minutes, Summitt and her son left the room and Hart talked about handing off the reins to Warlick.

Summitt was the face of women's basketball before it was on TV, before anyone paid much attention to it. She was the face of women's basketball as the sport began to take steps toward national acceptance and popularity. And she was still the face of women's basketball — and its most successful coach — as it gained worldwide attention, generated money at the most prominent universities and made stars of its best players.

There are few people in history who have done more for or done more with his or her sport. And now, after 38 years on the Tennessee sideline, Summitt is stepping away from the spotlight that she helped create.

It will be strange to see anyone but Summitt, she of the orange pant suits and steely-eyed stares, on the Tennessee sideline. But that will be the case when the 2012-13 season opens in November.

The great UConn rival is stepping aside.

Summitt was part of the inaugural class of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999 and was inducted into the basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield in 2000. She coached the Vols to 16 SECregular-season championships, 16 SEC tournament championships and 18 Final Fours. She was SEC coach of the year eight times and national coach of the year seven times. Her national championship seasons were in 1987, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2007 and 2008.

Summitt was respected even where she was perceived as the enemy — right here in Connecticut. When Summitt announced her medical condition last year, she soon acknowledged an outpouring of support from the UConn fan base.

A wonderful, sometimes testy, sometimes petty, rivalry developed between UConn and Tennessee, and between Summitt and Geno Auriemma, as UConn rose to national prominence beginning with its first national title in 1995 — when the Huskies defeated the Vols in the regular season and again in the NCAA championship game.

The programs played annually until Summitt stopped the series before the 2008-09 season. Tennessee won the last three meetings, cutting UConn's overall advantage to 13-9. UConn won all four national championship games that the two teams played — 1995, 2000, 2003 and 2004. The teams also met in the national semifinals in 1996 and 2002, with the Lady Vols winning in 1996.

Almost as entertaining as the brilliant basketball on display in the series? The verbal jabs thrown back-and-forth from Storrs to Knoxville. When the series ended, the sport and nation craved for more — because UConn and Tennessee, head and shoulders above everyone else, had established themselves as the two best programs with the two best coaches, a man and a woman of very different background and demeanor. UConn-Tennessee, for a while, was believed to be the only women's game that many men's fans cared about.

"Pat's vision for the game of women's basketball and her relentless drive pushed the game to a new level and made it possible for the rest of us to accomplish what we did," Auriemma, the UConn coach, said in a statement Wednesday. "In her new role, I'm sure she will continue to make significant impacts on the University of Tennessee and to the game of women's basketball as a whole. I am thrilled for Holly as this opportunity is well deserved and Pat will be a huge asset to her moving forward."